Forty two years female, Lan, came to our clinic for chronic fatigue issues. She had a very low energy of a 4-5 out of the scale of 1- 10; whereas a 1 in the scale indicates a situation that one stays in bed and can not get out of bed and a ten indicates superb energy that one can run, swim, and do anything one wants. Lan felt that she was stuck with psychological issues which had been going on for 15 yrs. She was on Zoloft and Bupropion, both are anti-depression drugs.
She complained that her skin was breaking out like teenagers; they were dry & flaky and her hair were falling out. Her San Dieago acupuncturist (before she moved to Boston areas) said she had adrenal tireness & low kidney yin. She had stabbing pains on her right eye brow, head aches on her sides only. She did not have dry throat but dry eyes only. If she stood up too quickly, her head felt moderate foggy. It's an effort for her to work around it. She had foggyness problem all her life. There was no ear blockage. She could not tolerate noisiness. When very stressed, she did not feel the noise; if moderate stress, she could feel a slightest of noise.
Lan's sinus was clear. There was no post nasal drip, no coughing but she felt pressure on her chest, back, and below lips (CV23 area). She had poor appetite. She did not know what to eat. The first day she came to the clinic she felt only slightly hungry. Her intestinal below navel felt gassy, full & distended. It's moderate. This was a norm for her for the last year or so. Her stool's loose, not hard, but she felt complete after she's done. SHe had pale urine. Her back & shoulder were stiff. Her menstrual period had 21 day cycle. Each perios averaged 5 days. It was moderate flow and it cut right off after 3rd day. It was generally dark red 1st, then red, then brownish. Cramps were mild. She used to have more severe cramps. There were large clots at the beginning. She generally felt hot. Her hands and feet tended to be hot. It usually took her one hour to fall asleep. She usually woke up after 3-4 hours. Sometimes she woke up at 1am and then dosed off. Sometimes she woke up and stayed one hour awake before falling back to sleep . She was not refreshed in the morning when she woke up. She generally felt sad and had been on counseling to work it through. Normally she didn't feel anything. She used to have severe anxiety, now just moderate anxiety. Meditation seemed to calm her. She used to easily over-react and triggered reactions quickly. She was perceived to be moderately anxious.
Her tongue was swollen and purplish. The diagnosis and treatment was directed to heavily Moving blood, tonifty qi & blood, clear head, and revive energy.
Her issues included: 1) Tension HA; 2) appetite/GI; 3) body achiness; 4) sleep/rest; 5) making her energy better. She was put on herbal prescription on a bi-weekly basis. She chose to take powder herbs after reading Herb Info
Her subsequent visits on a twice-monthly bases helped her resolve her chronic fatigue issues to a manageable level while improving the quality of her daily life.
She was also treated with acupuncture on her front and back. This was done on a monthly basis.It helped her resolve her achy muscles and back pains.